Do animals have a sense of time?

While animals may not read clocks or keep calendars, research shows that many species do have a sense of time – and often in ways surprisingly similar to humans.

Animals can anticipate regular events, like feeding times or migration seasons. Your dog might sit by the door when it’s nearly time for you to come home, and birds often know exactly when to start flying south. This ability is linked to their circadian rhythms – internal biological clocks that help regulate sleep, hunger, and daily activity [1]

Do animals experience time the same way humans do?

Not exactly. While many animals have an internal sense of time, it’s not the same as a human’s ability to track minutes and hours. Instead, animals rely on circadian rhythms – biological processes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle – to regulate sleep, hunger, and activity.

However, their perception of time can vary wildly depending on the species. For example, animals with fast metabolisms, like hummingbirds or flies, often process information more quickly, meaning time may feel slower for them [2]. On the other hand, large mammals with slower metabolisms may perceive time differently. So while animals don’t “tell time” like we do, they still live by their own internal clocks – and often with impressive accuracy.

Credit: Mike Bons/Getty Images

Can animals remember the past or anticipate the future?

Some can, yes – especially species with higher cognitive abilities. Animals like elephants, crows, great apes, and even some fish have demonstrated what’s called episodic-like memory: the ability to remember specific events and details about what happened, where, and when. [3] [4]

There’s also growing evidence that animals can plan for the future. For example, scrub jays have been observed storing food in specific places based on where they know it will be needed later. Chimpanzees have been seen selecting tools in advance of using them. While their concept of time may not be as abstract as ours, they still show an awareness that some things happen later – and they can act accordingly.

Credit: Duncan Noakes, Dreamstime

Does time perception change for wild animals vs pets?

Yes, in many ways. Wild animals rely heavily on seasonal and environmental cues to guide their behaviours. For example, bears prepare for hibernation based on shortening daylight hours and cooling temperatures, while migratory animals like whales or monarch butterflies time their travel to food availability and weather. [5] [6]

Domesticated animals, on the other hand, often sync their internal clocks to human schedules. A dog that’s lived with you for years may no longer respond to sunrise or sunset, but instead to your alarm clock, feeding time, or TV habits. [7] [8]

In both cases, animals adapt their time perception to the world they live in – whether that’s a forest or a living room.

Case Studies

Let’s take a look at three different animals and see how each study illustrates how these species perceive or interact with time in scientifically documented ways.

Scrub jays

Western scrub jays cached two types of food – perishable (worms) and non-perishable (nuts) – in different locations. They were later allowed to recover their caches after varying intervals of time.

Jays recovered perishable food if the interval was short, and avoided it if too much time had passed, suggesting they remembered what was stored, where, and when. This is considered episodic-like memory, a critical component of temporal awareness.

Scrub jays demonstrate a sophisticated sense of time, allowing them to plan behavior based on how long ago an event occurred. [9]

Credit: NaturesDisplay. iStock/Getty Images Plus

Chimpanzees

Chimpanzees were given the opportunity to choose tools from several options, even though the tools would not be used until hours later in a different room.

Chimpanzees consistently selected the correct tool for a future task, even when the reward was delayed. They exhibited self-control and future-oriented cognition, resisting immediate gratification.

Their behavior shows they are not “stuck in the present” and possess a working understanding of future time – a key trait in the sense of time. [10]

Find out more about chimpanzees here

Credit: Marc Guitard / Getty Images

Dogs

Dogs were left alone for 30 minutes, 2 hours, or 4 hours. Their greeting behaviors were recorded when their owners returned. Dogs showed more enthusiastic greeting behaviors the longer the separation. The results suggest they are sensitive to elapsed time, even if not clock-based.

While dogs may not conceptualise time like humans, they have an internal mechanism for tracking duration, likely related to circadian rhythms or associative memory. [11]

Find out more about dogs here

Credit: Herwig Kavallar

Final thoughts

Numerous studies have shown that many animals rely on internal clocks and cognitive abilities to navigate time in ways that help them survive and thrive. Though not in the human sense of minutes or hours, they can track durations, anticipate future events, and even recall past experiences.

References

[1] Li J.Y., and Chen M.Y., 2024, Chronobiology of migratory patterns in animals, International Journal of Molecular Zoology, 14(2): 111-127 (doi: 10.5376/ijmz.2024.14.0012)

[2] Osvath M, Martin-Ordas G. The future of future-oriented cognition in non-humans: theory and the empirical case of the great apes. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2014 Nov 5;369(1655):20130486. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0486. PMID: 25267827; PMCID: PMC4186238.

[3] Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395(6699), 272–274. https://doi.org/10.1038/26216

[4] Bruck, J. N., & Memory, A. (2015). Social memory and episodic-like memory in elephants. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 28. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/98g6n7xb

[5] Nelson, R. J., & Demas, G. E. (1996). Role of melatonin in mediating seasonal energetic and reproductive responses in mammals. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 11(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/074873049601100110

[6] Gwinner, E. (1996). Circadian and circannual programmes in avian migration. Journal of Experimental Biology, 199(1), 39–48. https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/199/1/39/7320

[7] Mongillo, P., et al. (2021). Dogs in a human world: A review on dog–human social interactions. Animals, 11(3), 633. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11030633

[8] Rehn, T., & Keeling, L. J. (2011). The effect of time left alone at home on dog welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 129(2–4), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2010.11.015

[9] Clayton, N. S., & Dickinson, Scrub Jays Remember the “What, Where, and When” of Caching Events, A. (1998). Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature, 395(6699), 272–274.
10.1038/26216

[10] Osvath, M., & Osvath, H. (2008). Chimpanzee and orangutan forethought: self-control and pre-experience in tool-use planning. Animal Cognition, 11, 661–674.10.1007/s10071-008-0157-y

[11] Wells, D. L., & Hepper, P. G. (2000). The behaviour of dogs in the absence of their owner: Can dogs tell how long their owner has been gone? Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 64(1), 31–39.
10.1016/S0168-1591(99)00127-2